October Aces; ITA National Fall Semifinals Set; Four Americans Reach Dow Tennis Classic Semis, with Australian Open Wild Card on Line; Wolf and Kozlov Meet Again at Charlottesville Challenger; Pro Circuit Update

October was full of great performances by juniors, as well as current and former collegiate players, and my monthly column for Tennis Recruiting Network shines a light on all those championships, with several earning multiple titles during the month. Twenty players are featured, and even with that many, I  couldn't include all the former collegians who claimed titles last month at some of the smaller ITF World Tennis Tour events. 

The last of the singles quarterfinal matches at the ITA National Fall Championships in San Diego just ended at around 6 p.m. Pacific time, with No. 6 seed Alexa Noel of Iowa avenging her All-American finals loss to No. 3 seed Sarah Hamner of South Carolina 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(1). Noel had four match points in the third, with Hamner serving at 3-5 15-40 and then at deuce with Noel serving at 5-4, but the freshman saved all four. Both players had played lengthy three-setters in the round of 16 early in the day, with Hamner saving a match point in her  4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Southern Cal's Salma Ewing, so the fatigue was evident in the final stages of the match.  But Noel didn't panic after she lost her lead in the third, and it was Hamner who made all the unforced errors in the tiebreaker.

On Saturday, Noel will play No. 5 seed Eryn Cayetano of Southern Cal, another All-American Championships rematch, with Noel winning their semifinal encounter 6-0, 1-6, 6-3.  The other women's semifinal will feature No. 2 seed Daria Frayman of Princeton against unseeded Irina Cantos Siemers of Ohio State.

The men's semifinals will feature the four of the top five seeds, with No. 1 Clement Chidekh of Washington facing No. 3 August Holmgren of San Diego. Both Chidekh and Holmgren made the semifinals of the All-American Championships last month, but did not play each other.  No. 2 seed Arthur Fery of Stanford will play No. 5 seed Matej Vocel of Ohio State, who knocked out No. 4 seed Stefan Dostanic of Southern Cal in the quarterfinals. 

The round of 16 in doubles is underway now, with both the quarterfinals and semifinals in doubles scheduled for Saturday. All singles results from today are below. Draws can be found here.

Cracked Racquets is providing coverage of the matches with commentary at their YouTube Channel.

Friday's singles results:

Second round:

Men:

Clement Chidekh[1](Washington) d. Andrew Rogers(Pepperdine) 6-2, 6-3
JJ Tracy[8](Ohio St) d. Aleksa Bucan(Arkanas) 6-0, 6-1
August Holmgren[3](San Diego) d. Finn Reynolds(Mississippi) 7-5, 6-2
Mason Beiler(Oklahoma) d. Alafia Ayeni(Cornell) 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
Matej Vocel[5](Ohio St) d. Trey Hilderbrand(Central Florida) 6-1, 7-6(4)
Stefan Dostanic[4](So California) d. Andres Martin(Georgia Tech) 7-6(5), 6-2
Andre Ilagan[7](Hawaii) d. James Davis(Denver) 6-0, 1-6, 6-0
Arthur Fery[2](Stanford) d Sven Lah(Baylor) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3

Women:
Mariia Kozyreva(St.Mary's) d Abigail Forbes[1](UCLA) 7-6(0), 4-6, 6-3
Eryn Cayetano[5](So California) d. Petra Hule(Florida St) 6-2, 7-5
Sarah Hamner[3](So Carolina) d Salma Ewing(So California) 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2
Alexa Noel[6](Iowa) d. Reilly Tran(North Carolina) 4-6, 7-5, 6-1
Irina Cantos Siemers(Ohio St) d. Abigail Desiatnikov(San Diego) 7-5, 6-2
Mell Reasco(Georgia) d. Tiphanie Fiquet(Mississippi) 6-4, 2-6, 6-3
Connie Ma(Stanford) d. Fiona Crawley(North Carolina) 7-6(4). 4-6, 6-1
Daria Frayman[2](Princeton) d. d. Rebeka Mertena(Tennessee) 6-0, 7-6(0)

Quarterfinals

Men:
Clement Chidekh[1](Washington) d JJ Tracy[8](Ohio St) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
August Holmgren[3](San Diego) d Mason Beiler(Oklahoma) 6-2, 7-6(4)
Matej Vocel[5](Ohio St) d Stefan Dostanic[4](So California) 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-1
Arthur Fery[2](Stanford) d Andre Ilagan[7](Hawaii) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3

Women:
Eryn Cayetano[5](So California) d Mariia Kozyreva(St.Mary's) 6-2, 6-2
Alexa Noel[6](Iowa) d Sarah Hamner[3](So Carolina) 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(1)
Irina Cantos Siemers(Ohio St) d Mell Reasco(Georgia) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
Daria Frayman[2](Princeton) d. Connie Ma(Stanford) 6-4, 6-4

Six Americans were competing in the quarterfinals today of the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic, and four of them have advanced to Saturday's semifinals.

Top seed Madison Brengle beat No. 7 seed Lizette Cabrera 6-0, 6-0 and will take on unseeded Danielle Lao(USC). Lao defeated Francesca Di Lorenzo 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.  2019 champion Caty McNally advanced to the semifinals when No. 2 seed Misaki Doi of Japan retired trailing 6-4, 4-2. She will face unseeded Robin Anderson(UCLA), a 2019 semifinalist, who ended the run of wild card Katrina Scott in the night match 6-2, 6-2. The Australian Open wild card will be on the line tomorrow, with the loser of the match between McNally and Anderson eliminated. Lao will have to defeat Brengle to keep her hopes for the wild card alive.

JJ Wolf(Ohio State) and Stefan Kozlov will meet again Saturday at the ATP Challenger 80 in Charlottesville, their third Challenger match since the end of September. Wolf, who beat 2017 NCAA champion Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia) in the quarterfinals 7-5, 6-4, defeated Kozlov last week in the final of the Las Vegas Challenger, while Kozlov had won their semifinal meeting at the Columbus Challenger en route to the title. Kozlov defeated wild card Emilio Nava 6-4, 6-2.  In the other semifinal, Aleks Vukic(Illinois) of Australia will take on Brayden Schnur(North Carolina) of Canada. Vukic beat No. 4 seed Jack Sock 6-4, 7-5, while Schnur took out Prajnesh Gunneswaran of India 7-5, 6-3. 

In other Pro Circuit action today, Keegan Smith(UCLA) and Alfredo Perez(Florida) advanced to a semifinal meeting at the $15,000 tournament in Fayetteville, with No. 5 seed Smith beating 2021 NCAA finalist Daniel Rodrigues(South Carolina) of Portugal 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-2. Perez, seeded No. 7, defeated Tadeas Paroulek(Baylor) of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2. An all-British semifinal between qualifiers will take place Saturday, with Henry Patten(UNC-Asheville) playing Charlie Broom(Dartmouth/Baylor).

At the $15,000 tournament in Ithaca, three Americans have advanced to the semifinals. Top seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) will play No. 7 seed Cannon Kinglsey(Ohio State) and No. 2 seed Vasil Kirkov will face No. 6 seed Luke Johnson(Clemson) of Great Britain. 

The women's quarterfinals at the $25,000 tournament in Orlando were rained out today, with the quarterfinals and semifinals now set for Saturday. Emma Navarro[3] and Allie Kiick[1] are the two Americans remaining in singles.

There has been no update for the ITF J4 in Boca Raton, I assume due to the rain in Florida. I don't know if the singles finals will be played, or were canceled.

Taylor Fritz lost to Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-3 today in the quarterfinals of the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris.

At the Billie Jean King Cup in Prague, the United States lost to Russia 2-1. Danielle Collins(Virginia) won all her singles matches during the week, but the doubles point decided today's match. Russia will face Switzerland in Saturday's final.